Over at the Book Smugglers: New Weyrd

Over at the lovely House of the Book Smugglers, I talk about the New Weyrd:my updated mythology for Corpselightand Verity Fassbinder.

We are delighted to welcome Angela Slatter here today to celebrate the release of a new Verity Fassbinder novel – Corpselight, the sequel to Vigil – by talking about the new monsters in it.

So a new Verity Fassbinder novel – that would be Corpselight – required some new monsters. As is my wont, I like to dip back into the depths of mythology and folklore to find my inspiration before adding a bit of a Fassbinder twist to my creatures. I give you my Five New Fassbinder Monsters.

The Undine: Undines are elementals associated with water. They are generally found lazing around in waterfalls and forest pools, and are cousins to nereids and mermaids et al. They don’t have souls, poor things, but can acquire one if they marry a mortal. Here’s the thing: the man who marries an undine? He needs to be sure he can remain faithful. If he strays, he’s kaput – and why not?

In Corpselight I wanted a water creature, but not a mermaid – there are always mermaids, we know what they’re like – so I went for the undine. They seemed a bit more relaxed and I really liked the idea of them as the slackers of the watery folk. Specifically, I say they’re the Yogi Bears of the Weyrd world, given to stealing picnic baskets and lazing on rocks in the Brisbane River. The one Verity talks to has a taste for donuts and is a source of some interesting information that leads V to a surprising series of discoveries about her own family …